Egypt death toll rises in Mubarak clashes

One person was killed following clashes between Egyptian police and protesters in Cairo, bringing the total death toll to two since clashes erupted on Saturday, a health ministry spokesman said early Sunday.

The clashes followed a court decision to clear former President Hosni Mubarak over killings during an uprising which ousted him three years ago.

Nine people were injured in the violence, spokesman Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar said, which occurred in Cairo’s Abdel-Moneim Riad square near the iconic Tahrir Square.

The first man to have been killed had been shot either with live ammunition or birdshot. “He had been wounded in the clashes,” a health ministry official told AFP.

Egyptian police initially fired tear gas at more than 1,000 protesters who gathered to denounce the court’s decision.

An AFP correspondent said police also used water cannons and chased protesters in side streets near Tahrir Square.

Police, some in plain clothes, chased protesters on foot and in armored vehicles, putting at least 20 arrested demonstrators in vans and driving off, the correspondent said.

The protest appears to have started with secular leaning activists but was joined by supporters of the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Earlier on Saturday, Cairo Criminal Court had also acquitted the former interior minister and top security chiefs of charges of killing protesters during the 2011 uprising… see more

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